Rightly the lxx ἀγαπᾶ, individ. plur., instead of the plur. of genus, מלכים; on the contrary, Jerome and Luther give to the sing. the most general subject (one lives), in which case it must be distinctly said, that that preference of the king for the people who speak out the truth, and just what they think, is shared in by every one. צדק, as the property of the שׂפתי, accords with the Arab. ṣidḳ, truth as the property of the lasân (the tongue or speech). ישׁרים, from ישׁר, means recta, as נגידים, principalia, Pro 8:6, and ריקים, inania, Pro 12:11. ישׁרים, Dan 11:10, neut. So neut. וישׁר, Psa 111:8; but is rather, with Hitzig and Riehm, to be read וישׁר. What the proverb ways cannot be meant of all kings, for even the house of David had murderers of prophets, like Manasseh and Joiakim; but in general it is nevertheless true that noble candour, united with true loyalty and pure love to the king and the people, is with kings more highly prized than mean flattery, seeking only its own advantage, and that, though this (flattery) may for a time prevail, yet, at last, fidelity to duty, and respect for truth, gain the victory.
Verse 14
Pro 16:14 14 The wrath of the king is like messengers of death; But a wise man appeaseth him.
The clause: the wrath of the king is many messengers of death, can be regarded as the attribution of the effect, but it falls under the point of view of likeness, instead of comparison: if the king is angry, it is as if a troop of messengers or angels of death went forth to visit with death him against whom the anger is kindled; the plur. serves for the strengthening of the figure: not one messenger of death, but at the same time several, the wrinkled brow, the flaming eye, the threatening voice of the king sends forth (Fleischer). But if he against whom the wrath of the king has thus broken forth is a wise man, or one near the king who knows that ὀργὴ ἀνδρὸς δικαιοσύνην Θεοῦ οὐ κατεργάζεται (Jam 1:20), he will seek to discover the means (and not without success) to cover or to propitiate, i.e., to mitigate and appease, the king's anger. The Scripture never uses כּפּר, so that God is the object (expiare Deum), because, as is shown in the Comm. zum Hebräerbrief, that were to say, contrary to the decorum divinum, that God's holiness or wrath is covered, or its energy bound, by the offering up of sacrifices or of things in which there is no inherent virtue of atonement, and which are made the means of reconciliation only by the accommodative arrangement of God. On the contrary, כּפּר
